Reading the Books in the past The Lightning Thief
by Loony.Luna.the.pygmy.puff
Summary: Between TLH and SON. TLH trio plus Annabeth, Nico, and Thalia read the books with the gods. Overdone-Yes, but it will be different
1. Chapter 1

**This is overdone I know. It's just that no one seemed to be able to get it right. Sorry if you don't like it. The rule of thumb is: don't like it, don't read it. Obey it. Preferably no flamers, but you can flame.**

Annabeth's POV

It was a normal day at Camp Half-blood. The one difference was that Leo was asking Annabeth to tell stories about her and Percy. Suddenly there was a bright light and Annabeth, Leo, Piper, Jason, Thalia(visiting camp), and Nico were on Olympus.

"Did you summon us," I asked, bowing.

"No," said Zeus, "We have no idea why you're here."

Another flash of light. A box of books hit Nico in the head. "OW!" he yelled, "why didn't you guys get hit."

Annabeth took a post-it-note of the top book and read it out loud.

_Dear confused demigods and gods,_

_The demigods are from the future. You may have noticed some books falling- wait, you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't see the books. Anyway, these books tell the story of the lost hero of the future- Percy Jackson-_

Annabeth choked up. These mysterious books were about her missing boyfriend- not that the gods can know. They would think that they were friends. Thalia took the not and continued reading.

_Percy Jackson. The gods are not allowed to harm these demigods from the future. By the way we are recording this and you are not allowed/able to leave until these books are finished._

_From,_

_Apollo and Hermes- the two most awesome gods ever._

_P.S.- Artemis, Yes we are the most awesomest gods ever. We did say gods as in male._

"Ok then," said Thalia, "Who wants to read first." Even though she was a hunter, you could notice tears in her eyes too. Nico wasn't crying, but he did look he was about to. Jason looked at her and his eyes said _don't worry. He'll be fine, I think._

"I guess I will," said Piper, "We should introduce ourselves first. I'll start. I'm Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite.

Leo stood up, "Leo Valdez, Son of the best god, drum roll please, Hephaestus."

Jason looked down and mumbled, "Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. Juno kidnapped me and put me in the Greek camp."

"A Roman among Greeks. Different but ok," said Poseidon.

Thalia stood up straight and tall, "Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, lieutenant of Artemis."

Nico locked eye with Zeus and said, "Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades. Before you argue, I was born during WWII( World War two)."

Shakily, Annabeth stood up, "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena." She looked so tired, like she was about to faint.

"Why do you look so tired?" said Athena.

"I've been looking for Percy for months with no luck," said Annabeth, "We should start."


	2. Chapter 2

_Sorry for it taking so long. Copying a book word for word is not easy! Thank you to the few people that liked/reviewed my story. BTW, authors' notes are italics, book is bold. Happy reading!_

Piper's POV

**I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**

"Piper, how dare you even consider such a dirty thought," Leo said, shaking his head.

"You're an idiot that's the chapter title," Piper yelled.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"No one does seaweed brain," Annabeth whispered.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

"Take cover. It's either going to explode or burst into flames," Nico said, diving behind a pillar.

"Nico," Thalia scolded, "It won't explode. It's not actually Percy. But do not listen to his advice."

"He does have really bad advice," Annabeth mused.

**Close this book right now.**

"Ok," Leo said. He walked over and shut the book.

"Leo," everyone yelled.

"It's ok," Piper said.

**Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

** "**That wouldn't work demigod," said Athena, "The monsters would still find you.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"No duh," All the demigods said.

**It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

Nico, Annabeth, and Thalia looked down remembering the war.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages- if you feel something stirring inside- stop reading this immediately . You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before**_** they**_** sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"But he didn't warn me," said Jason.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"No it's Peter Johnson," Thalia said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"It isn't?" Dionysus asked. Everyone ignored him

**I'm twelve years old.**

"Not any more," said Annabeth thinking about how much Percy changed.

**Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes, he is," Thalia and Nico said.

"He is not a troubled kid," Annabeth said softly.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"C'mon, he even admits it," Nico said triumphantly.

**I could start at any point in my miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan—twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Correction, their was twenty-six mental-case kids, one demigod, one satyr, and two teachers." said Nico.

**I know—it sounds like torture. **

"How is that torture," Annabeth and Athena yelled.

Jason said, "Well, not the Roman stuff.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

"I bet Grover would second that. Anything that doesn't involve enchiladas is torture to him," said Thalia.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hope.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smells like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Sounds familiar," Jason muttered. Dionysus would have known had he been listening.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"That won't happen," said Thalia.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"I sense some foreshadowing here," said Apollo. Artemis just punched him.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

"What… was… he… aiming… for," Leo choked out.

"He never really mentioned it," said Annabeth.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. **

"How does he do it?" asked Hermes, pranking notebook in hand.

"He just does, he's Percy. And he's klutzy," said Nico.

**And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.**

"Darn! I was going to write it down," said Hermes.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Hey look guys, it's raining cats and dogs outside," Nico said.

"I'll take a random guess and say that he can't be good and follow orders." Jason commented.

"Yep," everyone who knew Percy said.

"He won't live a day at Camp Jupiter," Jason said.

"Any good news?" Annabeth asked. No one had the heart to tell her to stop worrying.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Can I go hunt her down when we get back and seriously injure her?" Thalia asked.

"I guess, but I need to help," answered Annabeth.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. **

"Grover must love that description," said Thalia and Nico.

**On top of all that, he was crippled. **

"Hey Thalia, guess what we need to tell Grover," Nico said.

"That Percy called him crippled?" she asked.

"BINGO, we have a winner," Nico screamed.

**He had a not excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some sort of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like ****every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should have seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria. **

"And he blows his cover," Annabeth said.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. **

"Wonder why?" Hermes and Apollo asked.

**The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. **

"Mildly entertaining" everyone asked.

** "I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

" Please do," begged Ares. Both Hera and Aphrodite hit him on the head. Hard.

** Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"In your hair?" Aphrodite inquired.

"**That's it," I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll be blamed if anything happens."**

"Mrs. Dodds," Nico asked innocently.

**Looking back on it, I wish I decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. **

"So do I!" screamed Ares.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. **

Poseidon sighed. He thought this 'Percy' might be his son.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

"Of course, muttered Annabeth.

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years. **

"Longer," all the gods murmured. Then they all looked at each other in shock. Meanwhile, the demigods were laughing like crazy.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele,**_** for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting **

"Wait a second…" Thalia began.

"Perce was listening?" Nico said.

"And was interested?" Annabeth finished.

**but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodd's, would give me the evil eye. **

"He was punished for wanting to learn?" Athena fumed, "that should be illegal."

"Especially since he never wants to. He zones out whenever I lecture him," Annabeth commented.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"Detention for a month," Leo said. He promptly fell over and started rolling around on the floor.

"Don't worry," Piper said, "He's just having a panic attack."

"Who knew he would do that for a month of detention?" Jason asked. Just about everyone raised their hand.

"Wait I'm the only one who didn't get that?" Jason questioned. No one answered, and not that no one.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right." **

Thalia raised her hand.

"Can I be the one to yell at him when we get back?" she asked. Everyone agreed.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the steel, and I turned around and said, "Will you**_** shut up**_**?"**

"He always had the worst timing in history," Annabeth sighed.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"It always does," said Piper.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

"I hate it when teachers do that," exclaimed Leo.

"And you have experience with that I'm assuming," Athena guessed.

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.**

"That's a first," said Nico.

**"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"It just had to be that one," all the elder gods groaned.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

"Of course he's not. That's a half decent answer," Athena said.

**"And he **_**did **_**this because..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"I take offence to that," Zeus said

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"Either Zeus looks like a rock or Father is as blind as a bat," Poseidon said.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"Yuck," Piper exclaimed.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Eeew indeed, mortal," Hera said.

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Biggest war in history and he explains it in like, a sentence," Apollo noticed.

"That is the Percy Jackson we know and love," said Nico pretending to wipe a tear away.

**Some snickers from the group. **

"He got it right though!" Leo exclaimed.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"You never know, it could," Hermes said

"Hate to burst your bubble, but it won't be," Athena said.

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"More like horse ears," Leo said.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"What a surprise," Thalia said sarcastically, "Our cousin doesn't know something."

"Um Thalia, he doesn't know anything," Nico said, not noticing the sarcasm.

"Nico, it's a beautiful thing called sarcasm."

"Oh."

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"That's a happy note?" Jason asked.

"That would be Chiron's subject changing skills," Annabeth replied.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Men are doofuses," Thalia and Artemis said at the same time.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Almost everything," all the demigods murmured.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me. "About the Titans?" **

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

"I think that's the one word in his vocabulary," Annabeth said shaking her head.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."****I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"For a good reason," Thalia whispered.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever **_**lived, **_**and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"That's tough," Said every demigod in the room.

"I don't think I could do it either," Athena admitted.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life.**

**No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better. **_**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was. He's seen a lot of tragedy in his life time," Zeus said.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.****The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth , a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

Cue looks at Zeus from everyone but Annabeth, Nico, and Thalia.

**We'd had massive snowstorms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"What are you two arguing over now?" Hera asked. Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other and shrugged.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that **_**school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere. **

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"Ain't that the truth," Nico snorted.

"Truer words have never been said," Thalia agreed.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"What a deep comment George," Dionysus said, not looking up from his magazine to realize that Grover wasn't there.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home.**

"Wimp," Ares said.

**She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Awwwwwwww," all the females in the room exclaimed.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Can I make one?" Leo Asked, "After finishing the ship I mean." He noticed all the demigods' stares.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Attractive," Leo said.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

_I wonder…_ thought Athena

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

_Yup. He's a son of Fish Face._

Athena almost told everyone but noticed Fish Face mouthing the word _don't._ She let it go for now.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"No!" Hermes yelled, "Never guess your punishment.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"Obviously," Hermes said

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I **_**pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—**_**will**_**—****stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"That is so scary," Thalia and Nico said at the same time.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

"You shouldn't be sure," Annabeth said.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Chiron what are you doing!" Thalia yelled.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Wonderful."

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"She probably did," Annabeth said.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

Piper thought that Annabeth, Nico, and Thalia's jaws were going to hit the floor.

"Perce was doing the safe thing?" Annabeth asked.

"He was being polite?" Nico asked.

"Impossible! He's never like that. It helps his talent for ticking off the Gods," Thalia said.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"He might want to think again," Jason said.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"At least some things never change," Annabeth muttered.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"How is that worse?" asked Athena.

"Don't worry. I made him read it about a year ago.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"What! He never told me his first monster was a fury!" Annabeth shouted.

**Then things got even stranger.**

"It can get stranger?" Piper asked

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"That'll help," Leo said sarcastically.

"Is that what I think it is?" Thalia asked.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"That is so awesome," Leo said.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp," Ares said.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"How is that natural?" Piper asked.

"It's Percy," Nico suggested.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

"Creepy."

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"And the mist still affects him?"

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"I wonder if Hecate has some?" Hermes asked

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Sadly, no," Piper whispered

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" asked Poseidon.

**I said, "Who?"**

"Like father like son," Nico whispered to Thalia.

**"Our **_**teacher.**_**Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"He seriously needs to learn to lie," Annabeth said.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

"Dramatic much?" asked Hades.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"Of course," Nico said.

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"The end," said Piper.

**Reviews:**

**The Manga Master H. Prueitt:** first off thanks. Next, I'm adding the Romans later in the story. I am going to do the Heroes of Olympus but not the demigod files. I don't think that Reyna is in love with Percy.

**Raquelle:** You don't have to kill me now ok? Also the gods are from right after Thalia got turned into a tree, I know it's cliché but it's the easiest time for me to write the story in.


	3. Chapter 3

_My author's notes are going to be at the bottom from now on._

Leo's POV

"I'll read now," said Leo

**THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

"That couldn't be them," Annabeth said.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

"Over quickly?" asked Nico, "Oh, he probably just got kicked out of that school"

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"The mist?" asked Piper.

"It has to be. I'd bet Chiron is using it," Thalia answered.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"He is psycho," Nico protested.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"10 drachma's it's Grover's fault," Piper said.

"You're on Beauty Queen," Leo said

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

Leo grumbled as he gave Piper the money.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"Why hasn't he learned to lie yet?" asked Hermes.

"He has now, but back then he really was awful," Annabeth replied.

**Something was going on. Something **_**had **_**happened at the museum.**

"No duh," Jason said.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"The first monsters always the worst," Nico said, "Hey Sparky, remember yours?"

A minute later Jason said, "I believe it was Thalia."

Just after he finished his sentence he had an arrow holding up each sleeve to the wall.

"Never say that again," Thalia yelled.

"No problemo," He responded, "Now can I have some help?"

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"You two are fighting again." Artemis said, looking at Poseidon and Zeus.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"What?" Athena cried, "It's possible to get grades that low?"

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Finally, some fighting," Ares said.

"What do you call the monster last chapter?" inquired Piper.

"A small skirmish," Ares answered looking proud.

"A better question is: do you know what skirmish means?" Leo asked.

"Um, well it means, a, uh…" Ares tried to answer.

"Leo, do you know what a skirmish is?" Jason asked.

"Of course!" Leo responded, "It's a fight. A small fight."

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Annabeth and Athena started laughing.

"It's great that you two know, but can you tell the rest of us," Poseidon snapped.

"Sorry Kelp Face," Athena said, "It means an old drunk."

Everyone started laughing and it took Leo five whole minutes before he could start reading again.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

"At least he didn't blow up this school," Thalia said.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Wimp," Ares said.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Annabeth started gritting her teeth at that statement.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view** **of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,** **even if he was a little strange.**

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"He almost didn't," Annabeth murmured.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"He wants to impress Chiron," Nico said.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"That's always good," Jason said.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology **_**across my dorm room. **

"How could he throw a book!" Athena exclaimed.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. **

"That's one way to put it," Apollo said thoughtfully.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"He can now," all the demigods said.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"B-b-but that's so easy," Jason stuttered. He couldn't believe someone couldn't conjugate Latin verbs.

"Sparky," Piper said, "we don't speak Latin."

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"Remember when Travis dumped ants down the back of his shirt," Nico said.

"Good times," Thalia whispered.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"No time like the present to start," Athena murmured.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

_**"...**_ **worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"And I'm a duck," Nico said.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"That would be pretty hard," Piper pointed out.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they **_**know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"You'd be waiting a long time then," Thalia said.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— **_**"**_

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he **_**saw **_**her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

"That is a truly impossible task," murmured Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"No!" Hermes exclaimed, "Never reveal your position."

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"That's good," Hermes said.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop, **_**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

"I can answer for him," Nico started, "No."

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"That won't work Pierre," Dionysus said.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Th-th-three hour exam," Leo stuttered, "How is that possible."

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"I feel bad for him," Piper said.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich **_**juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I think that's a very good description of his dad," Nico said.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"How rude," Hera exclaimed.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,**

"Stalker," Leo screamed.

**so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"He probably gave him a heart attack," Annabeth said.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"No!" Hermes yelled, "Never admit to a crime."

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much **_**did **_**you hear?"**

**"Oh ... Not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"Oh not much, just the whole conversation," Jason said.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"That is so true," Thalia said.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, **

"Why are the cards like that?" Athena asked.

""It's fun to watch them struggle to read it," Replied Dionysus.

**but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800)**_ _**009-0009**_

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Cold."

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me.**_

"That is so cute," Aphrodite squealed.

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

"Urgh," Piper said.

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice**_**. **_**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"No, no, no, no, no!" Annabeth screamed.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

Nico visibly paled and started chanting with Annabeth.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"Why didn't he tell us," Thalia said.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Even I know that isn't funny," Leo said.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip **_**across four lanes of traffic.**

"Oh," Annabeth said.

"It's his life not Percy's," Thalia said.

"How would you know?" Athena questioned.

"This person died in our time already," Nico answered simply.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything."

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

He's very observant for a male," Artemis commented.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"He needs to get over it," Thalia whispered.

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"Me," Thalia said.

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"I would pick violets," Leo said.

**Reviews**

**Featherfur:** Sorry, no thalico. I personally do not support that ship because They seem more like brother/sister to me. Also I'm trying to get the TLH trio to talk more but they don't know Percy so they really can't comment as much. I did try this chapter though.

**Blue Torpedo:** I recently read a version of the _Odyssey_ that had no one instead of nobody. That is why I used no one.

**Proud Harmonian:** nothing yet. That comes later. If you have something you thing I should do just tell me. That goes for everyone.

**Teenbooks4eva:** I realized that about halfway through. I was on vacation which is why it took so long.


End file.
